Now fcarce four hundred left. These to defend,
Four favage dogs, a watchful guard, attend,
Here fate Eumæus, and his cares apply'd
To form ftrong buskins of well-feafon'd hide.
Of four affiftants who his labour share,
Three now were abfent on the rural care;
The fourth drove victims to the fuiter train;
But he, of ancient faith, a fimple fwain,
Sigh'd, while he furnish'd the luxurious board,
And weary'd Heaven with wishes for his lord.
Soon as Ulyffes near th' enclosure drew,
With open mouths the furious mastiffs flew :
Down face the fage, and cautious to withstand,
Let fall th' offenfive truncheon from his hand.
Sudden, the mafter runs; aloud he calls;
And from his hafty hand the leather falls;
With fhowers of ftones he drives them far away;
The fcattering dogs around at distance bay.

Unhappy ftranger! (thus the faithful fwain
Began with accent gracious and humane,)
What forrow had been mine, if at my gate
Thy reverend age had met a fhameful face!
Enough of woes already have I known;
Enough my mafter's forrows and my own.
While here (ungrateful task!) his herds I feed,
Ordain'd for lawless rioters to bleed;
Ferhaps, fupported at another's board,
Far from his country roanis my hapless lord!
Or figh'd in exile forth his latest breath,
Now cover'd with th' eternal fhade of death!

All hafty on the hiffing coals he threw :
And smoking back the tafteful viands drew,
25 Broachers and all; then on the board difplay'd
The ready meal, before Ulyffes laid

30

go

With flour imbrown'd; next mingled wine yet new
And lufcious as the bees nectareous dew:

Then fate companion of the friendly feast,
With open look; and thus bespoke his gueft:

95

Take with free welcome what our hands prepare,
Such food as fall to fimple fervants share;
The beft our Lords confume; those thoughtless peers,
Rich without bounty, guilty without fears!
35 Yet fure the Gods their impious acts deteft,

40

45

100

105

115

And honour juftice and the righteous breast.
Pirates and conquerors, of harden'd mind,
The foes of peace, and fcourges of mankind,
To whom offending men are made a prey
When Jove in vengeance gives a land away;
Even thefe, when of their ill-got fpoils poffefs'd,
Find fure tormentors in the guilty breast:
Some voice of God clofe whispering from within,
"Wretch! this is vilany, and this is fin."
But thefe, no doubt, fome oracle explore,
That tells, the great Ulyffes is no more.
Hence fprings their confidence, and from our fighs
Their rapine ftrengthens, and their riots rife :
Conftant as Jove the night and day bellows,
50 Bleeds a whole hecatomb, a vintage flows.
None match'd this hero's wealth, of all who reign
O'er the fair islands of the neighbouring main.
Nor all the monarchs whofe far-dreaded fway
The wide extended continents obey:
Firft, on the main land, of Ulyffes' breed
Twelve herds, twelve flocks, on ocean's margin feed;
As many talls for fhaggy goats are rear'd;
As many lodgements for the tusky herd;
Thofe foreign keepers guard ; and here are feen 125
Twelve herds of goats that graze our utmoft green :
To native paftors is their charge affign'd;
And mine the care to feed the brifly kind:
Each day the fattest bleeds of either herd,
All to the fuitors wafteful board preferr'd.

60

But enter this my homely roof, and fee
Our woods not void of hofpitality.
Then tell me whence thou art? and what the fhare
Of woes and wanderings thou wert born to bear?
He faid, and, feconding the kind request,
With friendly step precedes his unknown guest.
A fhaggy goat's foft hide beneath him spread,
And with fresh rushes heap'd an ample bed;
Joy touch'd the hero's tender foul, to find
So juft reception from a heart fo kind:
And oh, ye Gods! with all your bleffings grace
(He thus broke forth) this friend of human race!
The fwain reply'd: It never was our guife
To flight the poor, or aught humane detpife;
For Jove unfolds our hofpitable door,

"Tis Jove that fends the ftranger and the poor.
Little, alas! is all the good I can;

65

Thus he, benevolent: his unknown guest
With hunger keen devours the favoury feaft;
While schemes of vengeance ripen in his breast.
Silent and thoughtful while the board he cy'd,
Eumæus pours on high the purple tide;

70 The king with fmiling looks his joy express'd,
And thus the kind inviting host addrefs'd:
Say new, what man is he, the man deplor'd

A man opprefs'd, dependent, yet a man:
Accept fuch treatment as a fwain affords,
Slave to the infolence of youthful lords!
Far hence is by unequal Gods remov'd
That man of bounties, loving and belov'd!
To whom whate'er his flave enjoys is ow'd,
And more, had Fate allow'd, had been beftow'd:
But Fate condemns him to a foreign shore;
Much have I forrow'd, but my mafter more.
Now cold he lies, to death's embrace refign'd:
Ah, perifh Helen! perifh all her kind!
For whofe curs'd caufe, in Agamemnon's name,
He trod fo fatally the paths of Fame.

His veft fuccis then girding round his waift,
Forth rush'd the fwain with hoffitable haste,
Stra ght to the lodgements of his herd he run,
Where the fat porkers flept beneath the fun;
GA

120

130

135

So rich, fo potent, whom you flyle your lord;
Late with fuch affluence and poffeffions bleft, 140
And now in honour's glory's bed at reft?

75

Whoever was the warrior, he must be

To fame no franger, nor perhaps to me;

Have wander'd many a fea, and many a land. 145

80

85

wo, his cutias launch'd the spouting blood; Thele quarter'd, fing'd, and fix'd on forks of wood,

Who (fo the Gods, and fo the Fates ordain'd)

Small is the faith, the prince and queen aferibe. (Reply'd Lumæus) to the wandering tribe." For needy ftrangers ftill to flattery fly,

And want too oft betrays the tongue to lie.
Each vagrant traveller that touches here,
Dehudes with fallacies the royal car,
To dear remembrance makes his image rife
And calls the springing forrows from her eyes

150

160

Such thou may't be. But he whofe name you
Moulders in earth, or welters on the wave, [crave
Or food for fish or dogs his relicks lie,
Or torn by birds are scatter'd through the sky.
So perifh'd he and left (for ever loft)
Much woe to all, but fure to me the most.
So mild a mafter never fhalll find;
Lefs dear the parents whom I left behind,
Lefs foft my mother, lefs my father kind.
Not with fuch tracfport would my eyes run o'er,
Again to hail them in their native fhore;
As lov'd Ulyffes once more to embrace,
Reftor'd and breathing in his natal place.
That name for ever cread, yet ever dear,
Even in his abfeuce I pronounce with fear:
In my refpect, he bears a prince's part;
But lives a very brother in my heart.

165

170

Thus fpoke the faithful swain; and thus rejoin'd

175

The mafter of his grief, the man of patient mind :
Ulyffes, friend! fhall view his old abodes
(Diftruftful as thou art) ;.nor doubt the Gods.
Nor fpeak I rafhly, but with faith aver'd,
And what I fpeak, attefting Heaven has heard.
If fo, a cloke and vefture be my meed:
Till his return, no title fhall I plead,
Tho' certain be my news, and great my need.
Whom want itself can force untruths to tell,
My foul detefts him as the gates of hell.
Thou first be witnefs, hofpitable Jove!

180

And every God inspiring focial love;
And witnefs every household power that waits
Guards of these fires, and angel of thefe gates! 185
Ere the next moon increase, or this decay,
His ancient realms Ulyffes fhall survey,
In blood and duft each proud oppreffor mourn,
And the loft glories of his houfe return.

235

240

245

250

255

From facred Crete, and from a fire of fame : 230
Caftor Hylacides (that name he bore)
Belov'd and honour'd in his native race:
Bleft in his riches, in his cnildren more.
Sprung from a handmaid, from a bought embrace.
fhar'd his kindnefs with his lawful race:
But when that fate, which all must undergo,
From earth remov'd him to the fhades below;
The large domain his greedy fons divide,
And each was portion'd as the lots decide.
Little, alas! was left my wretched share,
Except a houfe, a covert from the air:
But what by niggard fortune was denied,
A willing widow's copious wealth supplied.
My valour was my plea, a gallaut mind
That, true to honour, never lagg'd behind
(The fex is ever to a foldier kind).
Now wafting years my former frength confound,
And added woes have bow'd me to the ground;
Yet by the stubble you may guess the grain,
And mark the ruins of no vulgar man.
Me, Pallas gave to lead the martial storm,
And the fair ranks of battle to deform:
Me, Mars infpir'd to turn the foe to flight,
And tempt the fecret ambush of the night.
Let ghaftly death in all his forms appear,
I faw him not, it was not mine to fear.
Before the reft I rais'd my ready feel;
The first I met, he yielded, or he fell.
But works of peace my foul difdain'd to bear,
The rural labour, or domestic care.
To raife the maft, the mislile dart to wing,
And send swift arrows from the bounding ftring,
Were arts the Gods made grat ful to my mind:
Thofe Gods, who turn (to various ends defign'd,
The various thoughts and talents of mankind,
200 Before the Grecians touch'd the Trojan plain,
Nine times commander or by land or main,
In foreign fields fpread my glory far,
Great in the praife, rich in the fpuils of war:
Thence charg'd with riches as increas'd in fame, 270
To Crete return'd, an honourable name.
But when great Jove that direful war decreed,
Which rous'd all Greece, and made the mighty
Our Rates myself and Idomen employ
To lead their fleets, and carry death to Troy. 275
21C Nine years we warr'd; the tenth faw Ilion fall;
Homeward we fail'd, but Heaven difpers'd us all.
One only month my wife enjoy'd my stay;
So will'd the God who gives and takes away.
Nine fhips I mann'd, equipp'd with ready stores, 280
Intent to voyage to th' Ægyptian fhores;
In feaft and facrifice my chofen train
Six days confum'd; the feventh we plough'd the
Crete's ample fields diminish to our eye; [main.
Before the Borcal blafts the vessels fly;

Nor fhall that mces be thine, nor ever more 190
Shall lov'd Ulyffes hail this happy fhoré
(Replied Eumaus): to the prefent hour
Now turn thy thoughts, and joys within our
From fad reflection let my foul repofe : [power.
The name of him awakes a thousand woes. 195
But guard him, Gods! and to these arms reitore!
Not his true confort can defire him more;
Not old Laertes, broken with defpair:
Not young Telemachus, his blooming heir.
Alas, Telemachus! my forrows flow
Afresh for thee, my fecond caufe of wor!
Like fome fair plant fet by a heavenly hand,
He grew, he flourish'd, and he bleft the land;
In all the youth the father's image fhin'd,
Bright in his perfon, brighter in his mind.
What man, or God, deceiv'd his better fenfe,
Far on the fwelling feas to wander hence?
To diftant Pylos hapless is he gone,
To feck his father's fate and find his own!
For traitors wait his way, with dire defign
To end at once the great Arcelian line.
But let us leave him to their wills above;
The fates of men are in the hand of Jove.
And now, my venerable gueft! declare
Your name, your parents, and your native air. 215
Sincere from whence begun your courfe relate,
And to what ship I owe the friendly freight?
Thus he and thus (with prompt invention
The cautious chief his ready fory told: [bold)

205

260

[bleed;

283

The monarch's fon a fhipwreck'd wretch reliev'd,
The fire with hofpitable rites receiv'd,
And in his palace like a brother plac'd,
With gifts of price and gorgeous garments grac'd.
290 While here I fojourn'd, oft I heard the fame
How late Ulyffes to the country came,

The fhip arriv'd': forth iffuing on the fand
They fought repaft; while to th' unhappy kind,
The pitying Gods themselves my chains unbind.
Soft I defcended, to the fea applied
My naked breaft, and fhot along the tide.
Soon paf'd beyond their fight, I left the flood,
And took the fpreading fhelter of the wood.
Their prize efcap'd the faithlefs pirates mourn'd;
325 But deem'd inquiry vain, and to their fhip re

And wait the woes Heaven dooms me yet to bear. Unhappy gueft! whofe forrows touch my mind! (Thus good Eumeus with a figh rejoin'd) For real fufferings fince I grieve fincere, pre-Check not with fallacies the fpringing tear; Nor turn the paffion into groundless joy

The tenth folt wafts me to Thefprotia's fhore. 350 Some guest arrives, with rumours of her lord;

And these indulge their want, and thofe the'r

woc,

420

And here the tears, and there the goblets flow.
By many fuch I have been warn'd; but chief
By one Ætolian robb'd of all belief,
Whose hap it was to this our roof to roam;
For murder banish'd from his native home.
He fwore, Ulyffes on the coast of Crete
Staid but a feafon to refit his fleet;
A few revolving months fhould waft him o'er,
Fraught with bold warriors, and a boundless forc.
O thou! whon. age has taught to understand, 425
And Heaven has guided with a favouring hand!
On God or mortal to obtrude a lie
Forbear, and dread to flatter as to die.
Not for fuch ends my houfe and heart are free,
But dear refpect to Jove, and charity.

430

And why, O fwain of unbelieving mind!
(Thus quick reply'd the wifeft of mankind)
Doubt you my oath? yet more my faith to try,"
A folemn compact let us ratify,

And witnefs every Power that rules the fky! 435.
If here Ulyffes from his labours reft,

Be then my prize a tunic and a vest;

Some cut in fragments, from the forks they drew :
Thefe while on feveral tables they difpofe,
As prieft himself the blameless ruftic rofe;
Expert the deflin'd victim to difpart

485

490

In fever juft portions, pure of hand and heart,
One facred to the nymphs apart they lay;
Another to the winged fon of May:
The rural tribe in common share the rest,
The king the chine, the honour of the fealt,
Who fate delighted at his fervant's hoard;
The faithful fervant joy'd his unknown lord.
Oh! be thou dear (Ulyffes cry'd) to Jove,
As well thou claim'ft a grateful ftranger's love!
Be then thy thanks (the bounteous fwain re-
ply'd)
Enjoyment of the good the Gods provide.
From God's own hand defcend our joys and woes;
Thefe he decrees, and he but fuffers thofe :
All power is his, and whatfoe'er he wills,
The will itfelf, omnipotent, fulfils.
This faid, the first fruits to the Gods he gave;
Then pour'd of offer'd wine the fable wave:

And, where my hopes invite me, ftraight tranfport In great Ulyffes' hand he plac'd the bowl,

In fafety to Dulichium's friendly court.
But, if he greets not thy defiring eye,
Hurl me from yon dread precipice on high;
The due reward of fraud and perjury.
Doubtlefs, O gueft! great land and praife

were mine

465

Blafpheme their feeder, and forget their lord.
Thus fpeaking, with difpatchful hand he took
A weighty axe, and cleft the felid oak;
This on the earth he pil'd; a bear full fed,
of five years age, before the pile was led :
The fwain, whom acts of piety delight,
Obfervant of the Gods, begins the rite;
First fhears the forehead of the briftly boar,
And suppliant ftands, invoking every Power 470
To fpeed Ulyffes to his native shore.
A knotty flake then aiming at his head,
Down dropp'e he groaning, and the spirit fled.
The fcorching flames climb round on every fide:
Then the fiug'd members they with fkill divide;
On thefe, in rolls of fat involv'd with art,
The choiceft morfels lay from every part.

He fate, and fweet reflection cheer'd his foul.
The bread from canifters Mefaulius gave,
(Eumæus proper treafure bought this flave,
And led from Taphos, to attend his board,
A fervant added to his abfent lord)
His task it was the wheaten loaves to lay,
And from the banquet take the bowls away.
And now the rage of hunger was reprefs'd,
And each betakes him to his couch to reft.

495

500

505

And join'd me with them ('twas their own conmand);

530

A deathful anybufh for the foe to lay,
Beneath Troy's walls by night we took cur way:
There clad in arms, along the marfires fpread,
We made the czier-fringed bank our bed.
Full food th' inclemency of Heaven I feel,
Nor had thefe fhoulders covering but of steel, 535
Sharp blew the north; fnow whitening all the
[fhields.
Froze with the blaft, and gathering glaz'd our
There all but I, well fenc'd with cloak and vest,
Lay cover'd by their ample fields at reft.

fields

BOOK XV.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Return of Telemachus.

2 be Goddess Minerva commands Telemachus in a vifion to return to Ithaca. Pififiratus and he take leave of Menelaüs, and arrive at Pylos, where they part; and Telema bus fets fail, after having received on board Theoclymenus the footbfayer. The feene then changes to the cottage of Eumaus, who entertains Ulyffes with a recital of bis adventures. In the mean time Telemachus arrives on the coaft, and, fending the veffel to the town, proceeds by bimself to the lodge of Eumaus.

OW had Minervá reach'd those ample plains, | Hence to Atrides; and his leave implore

Ndfor the dance, where Menelaus reigns; To launch thy veffel for thy natal fhore;